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Coming from Wisconsin for the first time. Home water is Lake Winnebago. Picking up some friends/kids in Minneapolis and heading up mid-June. Couple of the guys have fished there before but I will have the boat and am trying to familiarize myself with the lake. Looking at map trying to locate fishing holes, structure, danger spots, etc.

Walleyes will be the first target.

I guess we will likely be putting the boat in at The Landing Resort/Restaurant/Bar. Looking for any advice help on avoiding pitfalls and having a rewarding trip.

What are the preferred techniques? Do people anchor and jig, drift, or troll? If trolling, I am assuming the off-shore boards will work fine. Are people trolling crankbaits, crawler harnesses/spinner rigs, or something else? What is the preferred live bait this time of the year? What are the best bait shops in the area? Who makes the best map of the lake?

Any help or even other places I can learn about the lake would be helpful. Trying to organize my rods, tackle, and boat to determine what I need to bring. Any places to avoid so I do not tear up the boat.

Please feel free to share anything that might make our trip more enjoyable including places to eat, visit, etc.

Thanks

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Where do I begin? smile.gif Vermilion is one of the best marked lakes I've been on. If there isn't a hazard bouy or channel markers you should be OK. With a little common sense of course. wink.gif The main channel from one end of the lake to the other is marked well with channel markers and there are even flashing lights on the points of the main channel to help with evening navigation. Most reefs and shallow areas are marked well. Even so, at my parents resort we always get a shredded prop or mangled skag coming back to us each week. Some people just can't grasp the concept that land doesn't stop right where it touches the water. As far as tackle, bait, etc. keeping it quick and simple, worms and leeches will be your main two baits later in the year, and minnows may still be affective. Jigs, spinner baits, and floating lindy's are my top three choices combined with a trolling presentation. As far as the off-shore boards I've never used them and not many do around here. I see them being used on Mille Lacs and Winnie but not so much here. Not sure why, I would guess just because you aren't trolling over such vast areas in search of the eyes. Very rocky conditions in areas and tight trolling patterns (fish schooled up in a smaller hole) may make the boards more of a nuisance than a help. That's just me though. If you're out in Big Bay trying to cover some area then I bet they'd work well. Have fun when you get here and let us know how you did. smile.gif

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
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